What do you do when there is significant movement when checking a Ranking & Algorithm tracking tool?
-
I've checked various Ranking & Algorithm tracking tools (SEMrush, Mozcast etc.) and since 12th Jan 18 there has been a lot of 'turbulence' in terms predicted Google algorithm changes.
This has been 'high' for the past 2 weeks.
Question is, would you 'hang tight and ride the wave' or 'act fast'?
Our actual rankings haven't really been affected positively or negatively - so I'm thinking I should just ride the wave to see what happens but keep a close eye on the rankings?
-
I agree with Steve that there is a lot of flux in SEMrush lately. My take on much of the flux is below.....
-
SEMrush Position tracking is showing a lot of false flux lately for a couple of reasons.
1) They don't identify your position in the SERPs and report it as "not in top 100". If you click to see the cache that they used to obtain the rankings your domain is there.
2) Google has been inserting and removing a link to the image results at the top of many SERPs. "Images for [your query]" When present, SEMrush is counting this link to the image results as position #1 and the result is all results below are pushed down one position. When not present, all of the results below move up one position. You don't notice this very much in your visibility score if you are on the second page. However, if you have keywords that rank in the top three or four it can make a huge change in your visibility score.
And... Google does seem to be experimenting a bit and even losing track of a few pages for the keywords that they typically rank for. So, yes there is a little more flux in Google, but the number changes in many of the tools are a result of contaminated data and bad data collection.
-
-
Hey there! Tawny from Moz's Help team here.
It looks like our community members have already offered some helpful advice here. I just wanted to add that we have the Mozscast (http://mozcast.com/), which is a measure of how turbulent things are in the SERPs. Looks like the "weather" lately has been pretty stormy, so lots of changes are taking place.
As others have already pointed out, it's hard to pinpoint WHY the rankings are changing, but there are a few things to keep in mind as you go along.
There are a ton of factors that go into ranking well, so your best bet is to be very diligent and attentive to the issues affecting your SEO. There are a few things to keep in mind as you go along:
- Competitive research is important, because it's usually your competitors that you're fighting for rankings. There is a really good post about it here. I would also suggest looking at this blog postabout which tools can help you defeat your competitors!
- Keyword research and keyword strategy are also very important. We've got some helpful Moz Academy videos on both of these hereand here!
- Your link metrics also have a lot of sway when it comes to ranking. There are some really good Moz Academy videos on this, but I like this one about how search engines value links to start!
I hope that helps you out a bit! If you've still got questions, feel free to reach out to us at help@moz.com. Cheers!
-
Thanks, Steve - really appreciate your help and advice!
-
The search volatility tools at the highest level will be impacted by one or more verticals that may see more dramatic movement. So if you're worried dig in a bit and see if your vertical seems to be seeing more volatility.
Be aware of updates to tools, SEMRush had a keyword update around 1/15 that might shake up some of your data. You could see an increase in keywords for your site which may give the illusion that your visiblity is stable ( - drop + keyword update = may show false gains)
So monitoring volatility with just external tools isn't the most reliable. If your site has been stable, check if your competitors seeing big shifts. As a safeguard keep an eye on things like crawl rates, impression levels and pages you know typically drive organic traffic in GSC. Keep an eye on your organic landing pages in GA too.
-
Well, what would you do when it's 'act fast'. Basically all of these tools give you insights into if rankings change but they don't give you any details on why the rankings are changing. That's the biggest opportunity in this whole area of tools. That's why honestly you can only go with: 'ride the wave' in my opinion as there's barely any data available in general for use cases like this.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Location National vs. Country - Different Ranking
Why is the ranking for a keyword different for the locations National and for example Austria ... both should bring the ranking for the whole country, but often they are different?
Moz Bar | | Art-of-Artists0 -
Should I exclude prepositions in tracked keywords of moz analytics?
I'm new to Moz. Just set up my trial campaign, and it had suggested many keywords. Many of the phrases that were suggested do not contain prepositions. For example, instead of something like "sporting good stores in Chicago" it suggested "sporting good stores Chicago" Today, I looked at the on-page optimization suggestions, which are (of course) suggesting that I remove prepositions from my page to rank well. Well, as you know, that is unnatural to the reader. But I suspect people are searching in higher volume, leaving the prepositions out. I know that if I were to search for a sporting goods store in Chicago, I would probably leave out "in." What should I do? Should I remove all the suggested keywords, and make them readable (which people are less like using in their search?) Do I go back to all my pages and try to optimize it for a keyword that is natural, but does not include a preposition (such as Chicago sporting goods stores) or should I be doing something else?
Moz Bar | | osaka731 -
How does it work Fresh Web Explorer Mention Tool?By given information is right or wrong?
Fresh Web Explorer Mention Tool show two new brand mention urls on my campaign dashboard but i have checked through this urls we don't have any brand and keywords related to my campaign in this urls. So, why it is mentioned that "you have new brand mentions" in this url? Kind for information i have mentioned those urls when show my brand: http://www.slideshare.net/acoleman2/principles-of-micro-economics http://www.scribd.com/doc/237030746/Children-s-Spaces
Moz Bar | | surabhi60 -
Keyword Rankings vs Rank Tracker
Hello, I have a question, what is the difference between these tools? I thought both are the same, just that you can see you competitors ranks on the keyword rankings... The keyword rankings tool is telling me that my competitor is ranking in some keywords.. If I go to the rank tracker tool and type the keyword and competitor url it gives me that that keyword is not in the top 50, when keyword ranking is giving me position #3 I am using in both the same Search Engine with the same country (Google Mexico) Thank you
Moz Bar | | pixelarmx0 -
Bulk Upload to Rank Tracker?
I know the rank tracker limits you to 200 keyword phrase checks per day. Is there a way to bulk upload 200 so you don't have to put them in one at a time?
Moz Bar | | JenKeller0 -
What does the green check mark mean in the KW Difficulty & SERP Analysis Report mean?
Hi, I just generated a Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis Report and I find that many of the metrics have a green checkmark besides them. What does that indicate? Similarly, there are many metrics which appear in green. However rest are in grey. Also help what does that indicate? Refer the attached link to the screenshot of the report. I tried looking at a couple of places for the answer but in vain.. Thanks.. DQSlssU
Moz Bar | | Shalin.TJ0 -
Competition tracking
Hello when I added my website, I was asked to add competition website and brand name, where can I track this now?? Or If i cant track it, why was I asked to put it and how can it help? Sorry for asking, I use tablet at the moment and I just can't find it. Thank you, matt
Moz Bar | | Faild0 -
Is there any tool that checks the rankings at any time I want?
My problem is that in Moz when I check ranking it shows me only on a weekly basis. Acording to MOZ I was on rank 11 yesterday. This is not what my SEO guy has sent me in his report. And usually he is right. Would be nice to have a ranking report for each day. What is the sense of a ranking tool if I don't know what happened between 2 ranking dates? How can I check that? Is there any rank history tool? Or a tool that will check in real time. The way I do it sometimes is to go on google.com/ncr to see the us version of google because I am in Europe. Rank tracker does not work for me at the moment. Get ranking button is inactive. My old keyword list has not been imported from SEOMOZ
Moz Bar | | Valentinopolus0